Great Hike

Bean was in pretty bad shape when she got up. We decided not to send her to school and Heath took her to the doctor instead.

She had 2 ear infections and some other yucks going on. They thought she may have RSV but she did not. They got some drugs and started fixing her up.

Then they met up with me for lunch. After lunch I took Bean home to bed and Heath went off to appointments. I was feeling pretty beat too and we both took big naps. When we got up Heath and Izzy were home. We got the girls a snack and then headed off to Aldi for groceries. We had a laid back night making and eating pizza and putting away groceries. Heath got a few flowers and the girls helped pot them.

In the morning I got up and made some fresh biscuits and got stuff ready to cut down a tree and cook on a fire from the brush. Tony and Jon came by and we got to work.

This tree has been rotting for a while and we tried to save it a few years ago but it didn’t help. It leaned out toward the road and the best plan we had was to drop it right in the street and then clean it up as quick as we could.

Just before cutting it we filled 3 chain saws with gas and then I broke a cap on the biggest saw with the longest bar. So I had to grab the next longest one and get busy.

I got on the road side and cut a wedge out of the front of the tree.

Then Tony hit the wedge with a maul to break it out.

Heath, Jon and Tony watched for cars and I started my cut from the other side. The tree did not lean or crack or anything until I got most of the way through. Then all at once it started to crack and lean and I yelled that it was going and down it went.

It hit the ground and we jumped into action cutting sections, and moving them out of the road plus raking and sweeping up the debris.

In little time we had the street clear. No cars came by at all the entire time. Once the street was clear we started a fire and got all the debris from the yard.

Besides taking pictures Heath helped us get it all cleaned up.

We fed the fire for a bit

but it was pretty windy and we decided to let it die down instead of cook on it. We went inside and cooked up fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy for lunch.

After lunch the girls needed naps and Heath and I were tired too. We laid all laid down and took some naps. Then we straitened the house and got it ready for Granny Donna. She watched the girls while Heath and I went to my work Holiday party and then to our friend Adam’s birthday party.

We had a good time and the girls did too. We got home late and went to bed.

In the morning we lazied around for a bit and then Pumpkin went to Allie’s birthday party. We packed up the kid pack and the dog and headed to Blue River trail for a hike.

We hiked about a mile in and then stopped for a picnic lunch.

Then we hiked on a couple more miles. Most of the time Bean rode on my back

But we let her walk a bit too

Berry ran the whole time.

By the end Bean started to lean her head against me and was ready for a nap. We got back to the truck and got a few groceries on the way home. She took a nap and Heath and I got busy. We cleaned up the kitchen and then started a fire.

I got a bunch of tables and chairs outside and sat down w/ a beer and started cutting while I added wood to the fire.

Then some friends came over and we started making pizza.

We loaded up 3 big deep dish pizzas. Then we covered them in coals and let them cook.

Once they were done, the camera was not on my mind and we all stuffed them in our mouths. After eating a crazy strong wind appeared and put us all into a panic. We quickly brought everything inside and doused the fire with water. We had been gearing up for cooking marshmallows on the fire but had to make our smores in the toaster instead. They were still pretty good.

The girls got tired and everyone headed home and we put them to bed. Heath and I were pretty beat and cleaned up a bit and went right to sleep.